View full sizeExpress-Times Photo | MATT SMITH Ayva Calhoun, 2, and her mother Karina Stein, of Phillipsburg, experience snow-like conditions this morning outside of Santa's house at the Phillipsburg Mall. The Winter Wonderland will be set up throughout the weekend.

There were plenty of shoppers at the Phillipsburg Mall about noon today, but nothing matched the fierceness usually associated with the Black Friday shopping extravaganza.

Frenchtown neighbors Carol Herrman and Sheryl Ferry, taking a pit stop at the Europa Café in the mall, said their annual shopping spree was calmer than usual this year. Herrman’s daughter and Ferry’s daughter-in-law, friends since they were children, are the uniting force that brings the ladies out every year to find the best holiday bargains.

Ferry said the stores were stocked not just with bargains this year, but extra workers. The Pohatcong Township Wal-Mart had a sales associate, it seemed, in every aisle, according to Ferry. The extra employees made the hunt that much easier.

Coming out year after year with little sleep and the potential for full-blown pandemonium is well worth it, the women claimed.

“It beats cleaning up and doing laundry,” Ferry said with a chuckle. “That’s what I’d be doing right now.”

Other late arrivers to the seasonal shopping day spoke of equal success in finding their desired treasures.

Eric Nelson sat on a bench near the center of the mall, surrounded by heaping bags of holiday loot. His wife, Millie Nelson, had given him the OK to sit a little while she finished up at a few more stores.

“I’m here manning the fort,” Nelson laughed.

The Phillipsburg couple didn’t make it out until after 10 o’clock this morning, but it hardly mattered. The Keurig coffee brewer on Millie Nelson’s most-wanted list was still available and on sale when they arrived.

With seven grandchildren the couple said the holiday shopping can seem daunting, so they get most of it done before Thanksgiving, Eric Nelson said. Though he doesn’t usually expect enormous crowds in the late morning, Nelson said this year was even quieter than years past.

“It was not as hectic as it had been in the past, which really made it easier,” he said.

Maybe the most surprising part of the day has been the early holiday spirit of retail workers and fellow shoppers, according to the Nelsons.

“People have been really friendly,” Millie Nelson said. “We’ve had people telling us where we can go to get the best sales.”